What some Tour Players said……

Just a quick post to let those of you who are interested know what the results of my initial ‘assault’ on Twitter based tour players produced.

I wanted to know:

• when did they start to play
• when did they begin to ditch other activities in favour of golf
• when did they begin to really focus on trying to play on tour.

I was interested to see if there was any fit with the DMSP model that I have previously written about.

The results

Firstly, European tour players came back with ‘zip’ which is pretty poor I think. All the answers I received came from US tour players, or US based tour players. This is what they said:

Stewart Cink – started ‘before I can remember’, dropped soccer (first love) when he was 14 and thought about playing on Tour aged 19-20.

Paul Stankowski – First round at age 8, focused only on golf aged 13-14, and committed to playing on tour aged 18-19.

Lee Janzen – Started at 13, quit baseball to focus more on golf at 14 and ‘improved a ton that next year’. Second year of college (approx 19) ‘knew I would try the tour’.

Trevor Immelman – started age 5, began specialising more on golf aged 10 and turned pro aged 19.

Joe Ogilvie – ‘It just happened, no plan whatsoever’.

I hope this might be of interest to you or parents of children you teach, especially given the information provided by three Major Champions.

Look forward to the next time, DC

Coaching recreational golfers

I wanted to point out some work that has been done in the UK by SportscoachUK. It can perhaps be a useful tool in cross referencing the behaviour of coaches who spend time with children and adults who are playing the game more along recreational lines than to develop high performance at elite level.

The document is laid out into stages –Active Start, Fundamentals, Learning to Play & Practice, Developing Participation and Sustaining Participation. (A sort of LTAD for Lifelong Participation rather than elite performance!)

Within each stage you will see two sets of information – ‘Participant Capabilities’ & ‘Personal Development’ goals.

The ‘participant capabilities’ relate to “the broad knowledge, skills and behaviours that participants should develop to meet their needs, achieve their goals and gain maximum enjoyment and satisfaction from their participation in sport”. These cover – Physical, Technical, Tactical and Mental.

Furthermore under ‘personal development’  of the participant the 5C’s concept suggested by Jellico et al, has been adapted to sport and the 5C’s now include development of Competence, Confidence, Connection & Caring,  Character and Creativity (notice how they snook a 6^th one in!!).

Although the definitions found in the document below are generic, I’d be interested in your thoughts as to the transferability to golf coaching, remembering that they are aimed at children and adults playing the game for recreational rather than performance purposes.

 My abridged version is here – Learn more

The full report can be found here – Learn more

I hope you find it of interest, and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

David

Which model do you really coach to – LTAD or DMSP?

There is a lot of discussion on Twitter about LTAD (in golf) and the benefits and drawbacks of the model and its theories. This has led me to think that much of the discussion has focused around the early years of sports participation and the methods by which we engage with young people.  I think coaches would benefit from an understanding of the Developmental Model of Sports Particpation (or DMSP), as it is an under exposed but valuable framework which maps much of the coach / athlete relationship, without going into as much detail about physiological development and windows of trainability.

The DMSP was developed by Jean Côtè and is mapped out below. It covers specialisation vs diversification in early years, the type of environment that coaches should aim to create for participants as they become more committed to sport(s), coaching behaviours and much more.

The book chapter link below goes into much more detail. 

Let me know which framework you identify with, or whether indeed you are working with a blend of ideas that permeate from either of the models.

 

Book Chapter including ‘The Developmental Model of Sports Participation’ – Learn more

Some Carol Dweck stuff

There are a lot of people that I follow on Twitter referencing Carol Dweck’s work.  I thought I’d post these documents from a recent seminar that I attended for those of you with an interest in her work. Really like the poster which may be a useful way of explaining this stuff to parents.

Hope some of you find them useful

The secret to raising smart kids

Nigel Holmes Mindset Diagram

Carol Dweck Research Paper

Overnight success?? Don’t think so.

Consider the following players:
A.PALMER, B. HOGAN, B. JONES, B.LANGER, D.TOMS, DAVIS LOVE III, E.ELS, G.NORMAN, G.PLAYER, H.IRWIN, H.SUTTON, I.WOOSNAM, J. NICKLAUS, J.DALY, J.FURYK, J.LEONARD, J.M.OLAZABAL, J.MILLER, L.JANZEN, L.TREVINO, M.O’MEARA, M.WEIR, N.FALDO, N.PRICE, P. HARRINGTON , P.MICKELSON, R.FLOYD, R.GOOSEN, S. ELKINGTON, S. SNEAD, S.BALLESTEROS, S.LYLE, T.JACKLIN, T.KITE, T.WATSON, T.WOODS, V.SINGH

A very strong line up I’m sure you will agree.

With a lot of discussion going on about early specialisation vs. late specialisation, when should a child start to specialise in a sport in the hope that they may later have international success and how many years (or hours) are needed to be devoted to something to become an expert, I set about identifying some key dates that all these players listed above had in common. They were:

• The age they started playing golf
• The age they turned professional
• The age they first won on Tour
• The age that they won their first major

Now there are many questions that are unanswered in this piece of work, such as when did each of the players start to specialise in the game of golf, how did they practice, what potential benefits did they have from factors such as parents, social status, ability to access golf facilities, etc, but the  numbers that emerge when studying the averages from these questions is as follows:

• The age they started playing golf – 8 years old
• The age they turned professional – 21 years old
• The age they first won on Tour – 24 years old
• The age that they won their first major – 30 years old

That suggests that it takes on average 13 years from starting the game to being able to play on tour (these numbers are also fairly stable when you consider the different era’s from which the list of players is drawn). It also suggests that even when a player gets to play on tour they are still on average 9 years way from reaching the pinnacle of their sport. That’s a long journey!

There is so much more to understand about how players are best helped on that journey, but an overnight success it is not!

Think box, Coach box

This week I had the pleasure of presenting some information to a group of PGA professionals on the subject of ball flight. A link to the presentation is here: click here

In discussion with one of my co-presenters the night before, he remarked on the depth of information that I was presenting, and whether or not the player really needed to know what I had to say. My reaction was to say that in my opinion that was a call that the teacher/coach had to make given the situation that they faced when working with a player. However, I was sure that this was information that every teacher/coach should know about as it forms part of the vast array of knowledge that a teacher/coach must sift through every time they observe a player and begin to make an analysis of what the player is doing, and what they would suggest to improve things.

And as I was discussing this, I said “you know it’s a little like Golf54’s Think box/ Play box idea, but for coaches”. The concept is that in the ‘Think Box’ the coach makes an analysis of the player they are helping, and at that time the more relevant information they can call on to make a decision on what they are going to say to the player, hopefully, the more informed the decision is that they make.

However, when they step across the line and enter the ‘Coach box’, all of that information must be distilled into something the player will understand, and that usually means a simple instruction which has meaning to them.

Problems seems to arise in the ‘Coach box’ when a teacher/coach is using information that should have remained in the ‘Think box’ area to explain to the player their thoughts. A slightly over simplistic analogue would be that in the ‘Think box’ the teacher/coach takes on the demeanour of a thoughtful and analytical thinker, and in the ‘Coach box’ they take on the persona of a motivational and inspirational communicator. Furthermore, when the depth of analysis is missing in the ‘Think box’, the information passed on in the ‘Coach box’, no matter how well delivered, might not be as effective as it could be.

That is one of the traits of a great coach for me, to be able to consistently step over the line from the ‘Think box’ into the ‘Coach box’ and change your approach and attitude to produce the best solution for the player, each and every time.

Please your thoughts and experiences to share with others.

Thanks DC

Irrationality

Just working my way through the book Irrationality by Stuart Sutherland.

4 great pieces of advice that I think work well for anyone wanting to be as good as they can be are provided in Chapter 10.

Sutherland suggests that as we go through life we should:

1. Search for evidence against our current beliefs
2. Try to entertain hypothesis which are antagonstic towards each other
3. Be particularly careful to take into account anythingthat conflicts with your beliefs
4. Remember that nobody is always right, though some people are always wrong

Does your current behaviour mirror these observations. It’s easy to see that if you do the opposite a tunnel vision approach to development will be encouraged and a cult like approach to your views will ensue.  A dangerous place to be if you want to be as good as you can be.

Please leave your thoughts, DC